Colonel Pat Lang's Outpost - "A Committee of Correspondence"

Posts from August 2012

31 August 2012

""There are many cracks in the ring closing tighter on Iran. We criticize this," he said, also singling out UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for traveling to Tehran this week.

Ya'alon's statements came a day after Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey said that he did not want to be "complicit" if Israel chose to strike Iran's nuclear program, positing that a premature attack would dissolve the international pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to journalists in London, Dempsey said an attack would "clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran's nuclear program," but added that the "international coalition" pressuring Iran "could be undone if it was attacked prematurely".

"I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it," he added." JP

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Martin Dempsey is either a brave man who understands his oath to the Republic or he is fronting for the BHO administration's real policy. Maybe it is both.

Natanyahu is coming to Washington to crack the whip over BHO before the election. According to this JP story he will demand a firm commitment as to a US attack on Iran, dates and all. IMO the implied threat will be to throw the weight of the AIPAC/Israel political forces behind Romney in the election if his will is not done.

IMO BHO should defy him and go on national televion to give the details of the threat and blackmail from the leader of a small country that is deeply in debt to us both financially and strategically. Part of the broadcast should be an offer to release to the media, all of the media, the tapes of the Natanyahu meeting. pl

"The trial of Egyptian TV anchor Tawfiq Okasha on charges of inciting violence against the country's president will begin at Cairo Criminal Court on Saturday.

On 10 August, Egyptian authorities accused Okasha, a presenter and head of the Faraeen satellite channel, of calling for the violent overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, following complaints against the anchor from a number of lawyers and revolutionary figures.

Authorities ordered that the Faraeen channel cease transmission for at least a month." al-Ahram

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This is a little something special for any naifs in the crowd who still think Mursi is about democracy and free speech. If this does not work they can try him for "material support of terrorism." That works here. pl

30 August 2012

"Newsweek quotes one Afghan officer who says he understands why "our men are shooting U.S. and NATO soldiers."

"I have been personally hurt by the way American forces behave toward my soldiers, our villagers, our religion and culture. Too many of them are racist, arrogant and simply don't respect us," he said.

U.S. soldiers are watching their backs against Afghan soldiers for fear of insider attacks. Once cordial relations and visits to each other's quarters have stopped. Some Afghan soldiers are Taliban guerrillas ordered to false-flag volunteer to kill U.S. advisers." de Borchgrave

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"Too many of them are racist, arrogant and simply don't respect us," he said.

I believe it. In the time before 9/11, US military relations with the Muslim World were a matter of military attaches, training missions, Green Beret missions, etc., The personnel requirements of ths work were quite small and could be "covered' with specialists who liked workig with foreigners, were adaptable, felt deep respect for people of alien culture and wanted a life of high adventure.

Since 9/11 the main forces of the Army and USMC are directly exposed to such alien populations. The US arned forces are reflective of the collective thoughts, feelings and biases of the various US populations. They have been taught by thei whole lives to believe that the USA represents the future of mankind and that any foreigner with any sense wants to be an American and that local customs, religion, and folkways are inhrently backward and something that the "natives" will abandon when they see the American model available for imitation.

No number of "shake and bake" courses and classes given to soldiers on the subject of cultural sensitivity will change the collective mentality of men and women who think they have been sent to Afghanistan or wherever to "save" the natives from themselves.

We were better off when working with "the natives' was left to those who enjoyed the work. pl

"... a paper entitled “Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East”, an 82-page analysis that concludes that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist Israel. The authors conclude that Israel is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations with Arab and Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community.

The study was commissioned by the US Intelligence Community comprising 16 American intelligence agencies with an annual budget in excess of $ 70 billion. The IC includes the Departments of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Defense Intelligence Agency, Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, State, Treasure, Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency commissioned the study." Foreign Policy Journal

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I don't know anything of this journal but such a paper seems an improbability. To propose such a paper would be a career ending move. To write it with the conclusions stated would be enough to ensure banishment from government and a hue and cry.

29 August 2012

In Egypt Air Marshal Shafik, Mursi's principal opponent in the late election is placed on a "watch list" at the ports of departure from Ehypt. This is obviously a prelude to prosecution. A suitable charge will be found. Shafik nearly won. That can't happen again according to the Islamist playbook. "One man, one vote, one time" is their formula. The Islamist dominated parliament and constitution drafting committee will put religious freedom to a vote as well as provisions to allow the parliament and president to imprison minister who displease them. "Progress" is being made in Egypt and the US applauds it.

In Syria even the Washington Post admits that the Islamist rebels are losing. Wherever they try to hold ground, they lose. They shoud read something like "People's War, People's Army" by Giap. Nevertheless, Syrian government forces are still described in the Post as "pro-regime" forces In Turkey the MB related Erdogan pushes for an attack on the Syrian Air Force. What is left of the Turkish General Staff resists this.

All in all, this is a mixed "bag" for the neo-Wilsonians in the Obama Administration. What will he do to "up the ante" if he is re-elected? What will the neocon tool Romney do if he wins?

"The US is not losing the war in Afghanistan in the classic military sense. The US, its allies, and Afghan forces still win virtually every direct military encounter. The problem is that this is a political war where the political impact of combat, politics, governance, and economics are far more important than tactical success in directly defeating the enemy. At this level, the insurgents still seem to have significant momentum and are certainly not being decisively defeated.

Moreover, tactical military success is no guarantee of a successful Transition. The choice between victory or defeat will also center around the success or failure of the Afghan government and Afghan forces after most US and ISAF forces largely withdraw in 2014, and major cuts occur in aid and military spending. As was the case in Vietnam, the US can win every battle and still lose the war." CSIS Burke Chair

The State Department says that the Corrie family has a" right" to appeal the decisions of Israeli courts that the IDF was not to blame in this young woman's death.

This American girl was taking part in a protest against IDF demolitions of Palesinian homes when she made the error of mistaking the IDF for a civilized army. She tried to face down the bulldozer driver. In response he ran over and killed her.

Judge Gershon says the act was justified because this was a "war time situation." Really? Really? Israel by its own estimation has been at wasr since 1948. That would seem to imdicate that they feel justified in killing anyone, anywhere, any time if they think it is a good idea.

The State Department says that the family has the right to appeal under Israeli law. I suggest the Corries come home and try their luck in US courts. There must be justice somewhere. pl

28 August 2012

"In small mountain villages on Taliban turf in eastern Afghanistan, Pashtun tribesmen took up arms to fight the insurgents this summer, fed up with their heavy-handed tactics of closing schools and threatening families whose sons had joined the Afghan Army.
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The New York Times
Ghazni and Laghman provinces have fought for the Taliban.
“They wanted to make our children illiterate and miserable,” Malik Ghulam Rusal, a district elder, said about the Taliban. “We told them that if you want to wage jihad, go and fight the foreigners, not ordinary people. But they did not listen
" NY Times

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Afghans will be Afghans. This error on the part of the Taliban is much the same as the gross error made by AQ in Iraq. The Wahhabi salafism of the jihadis does not allow for local variants of Islam. The attempt to impose uniformity of practise was a fatal mistakr in Iraq.

My advice to the NATO command would be to stay away from this revolt. If you touch it you will contaminate it in the eyes of the counter-insurgents. pl

"Being a Christian in the Middle East carries special challenges. You are an identified minority. You are subject to special laws that limit your rights. Worse, during times of conflict or even times of peace, your community may be subject to intense discrimination and violence. It is not a comfortable path. It is a commitment based on deep faith and loyalty to the teachings of Jesus.

"
Nothing is so tragic as to see those people whose emotional development has prematurely stopped and, as a result, their disposition, their bent of mind, has basically settled into an inalterable pattern. This is a pity because a youthful mind exhibits a lively emotional disposition that responds alertly and discerningly to life, its activities, and its events. A generous, welcoming disposition finds wonder everywhere. It is quick to admire because admiration expands the mind and deepens and refines the emotions. It also spurs interest in the admirable. In turn, that interest drives the mind to explore whatever acts to expand its power. More importantly, a lively, welcoming mind uses its activities to develop the instinct of sympathy.
" Sale

- The Syrian jihadi rebels say they shot down a government helicopter over Damascus . They might as well take credit for this one. The government has at least 175 more. Wiki

- Taliban "party-poopers" beheaded 17 men gathered for traditional singing and dancing in Helmand Province where the marines have spent so much time on COIN in the last couple of years. Taliban Islam does not tolerate such frivolity as music and dancing. Hmmm. Cotton Mather wasn't this much of a prude.

- Garbage in Cairo is collected by Coptic Christians who feed the edible parts to pigs. President Mursi's relations with the whole Coptic "thing" is still rather indeterminate. Last year htere was a Muslim inspired general round-up and wasted slaughter of the swine and as a result the Cairene population is faced with a crisis of garbage accumulation.

You couldn't make this stuff up if you were writing fiction nobody would believe it. pl

26 August 2012

Lots of interesting things out there today that I don't want to write on; Lance Armstrong's fate, Neil Armstrong's departure for the Western Isles, Jeff Stein's story in the Washington Post Magazine. pl

My willingness to embarrass myself knows no bounds. If my eyes are not deceiving me there were many a Middle-east old hands in the State Dept. who had to be put aside so the neoconnized new blood could take his place. And that happened elsewere too, while slowly the stupidest guys on earth could feel at home in their politically appointed seats. And oil, of course, the snake oil of equality that made it imperative to throw aside the more competent people so the miriads of Jennifer Lynne Matthews could prove how smart they are and the miriads of Obamas could find their ways open, in fact so open that they could change even their countries of birth as many times as needed for the purpose of milking the affirmative action plus foreign exchange paths of academia and enter politics with the best of resumes. So there they are, the ambitious, but all accomodating women careerists, the young know-nothings and obamases and the surviving sycophants of officedom put in decision places to fill the void created by the dismissal of those who knew something about the Middle-east and were an obstacle to the zionists and the politicians under their sway (usually of democrat extraction). And this process will never end because it takes a lot of time and a lot of able-brain willingness to regain the lost knowledge. A thing impossible in a country where "this belief [that] springs from the notion that humans are so much alike everywhere that surely they must all want to become part of the West and in doing that reject their "worthless" outmoded ways" is as valid in foreign policy as it is in internal affairs, where the absurd laws of disparate impact and the quota-everywhere people are making life especially hard for the competent, who are usually of the wrong sex and skin color, while everyone waits for the flash mobbers to westernize somehow and the girls to grow some balls other than those prosthetics of feminazi making whose only use is in the calling of hard-thinking men wussies when they do not agree with their dogmatic certainties. But perhaps my comments have no resemblance to reality, not in this age where nulities like Elena Kagan can rise to be a Supreme Court justice while people still have the obstinate blindness to attribute such feats of tribal manipulation to raw intelligence. Let's wait till reality becomes a bit more clear and people start to remember that foreign policy in the Middle-east was really better when the offices responsible for it were considered to harbor plenty of antisemites. Anonymous

25 August 2012

"A shrine in the Libyan capital Tripoli venerating a Sufi Muslim saint has been partly destroyed - the latest in a series of attacks blamed on ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists.
Tripoli residents said men with bulldozers attacked the shrine of al-Shaab al-Dahmani, unimpeded by police.
The attack came a day after hardliners were accused of damaging the tomb of a Sufi scholar in the city of Zlitan.
Hardline Salafists regard the shrines as idolatrous.
On Friday, a group attacked the tomb of 15th-Century scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar in Zlitan, about 160km (100 miles) south-east of Tripoli. The Reuters news agency said its dome had collapsed.
Video footage showed chunks of masonry littering the floor, bullet holes pockmarking the walls and ornate Islamic tiling destroyed." BBC

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It has seemed that Libya might perhaps have escaped the curse of Salafist Wahhabism. This seemed true because of the peculiar nature of the country with its small population, its long history of Sufi involvement in religious affairs, and the high percentage of Libyans who were educated abroad by the unlamented Qathafi government.

There is, however, a sizable Salafist group. Their eventual role in the country is uncertain. These Salafists are showing up in places like Syria and more particularly in Central Africa. In Mali they are attacking the Zawiyas of Sufi lodges and the tombs of Sufi saints. In Mali the Salafists now hold Timbukto (veriously spelt). If they succeed in capturing the capital, Bamako, their will be an even more severe "purge" of Muslims who are thought to be less than pure.

Sufism is a varied expression of Islam that concentrates on the Batn, the inner spiritual life of Muslims rather than the rule driven Islam of the Salafists who seek everywhere to impose their inhumanly austere Sharia law. They hate the Sufis for their belief in the importance of the love of God.

The distinctions among various forms and belief systems within Islam still escape almost everyone in the US, and, especially within the US Government. It is my impression that people do not wish to understand. What they want is the GWOT. Ignorance makes the endless devotion to that cause easier. pl

"Protestors insist that Morsi's affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood and his selection of largely Islamist aides promises to undermine the "civil nature" of Egypt.
The call for demonstrations 24 August did not garner much support from established political groups and activists who, including some liberal figures, insisted that Morsi is a legitimately elected president and that the democratic choice of people had to be respected.
"We have to make sure that the civil nature of Egypt is not undermined, but we also have to show respect for the choice that Egyptian voters made through the ballot box. Morsi is a freely and legitimately elected president," said Amr Hamzawi, a prominent liberal.
" Al-Ahram

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As I was saying, this is like stroking sheep before the knife cuts. pl

"A MONTH after rebel forces launched a blazing attempt to capture Aleppo, Syria’s second city, they are starting to wilt. The regime claims to have routed them from their main stronghold in the Salaheddin district. Clashes continue in the southwest of the city and around the airport, but the best that rebel commanders can now hope to achieve is to draw the regime into a quagmire.
Whole streets have been reduced to rubble in the country’s commercial hub of 2.5m people. This is hardly the outcome the rebels were looking for, but it is not surprising either. Commanders have long acknowledged that they find it difficult to hold cities. With the recapture in February of the Baba Amr district in Homs, Syria’s third city, the regime showed it has no qualms over using heavy weapons to kill as many as necessary to regain control. At the end of July, with the battle in Aleppo under way, it brought out fighter jets for the first time. With little more than harsh words to fear from the outside world, the regime keeps using ever more powerful weaponry. A bombing from the air in Azaz, north of Aleppo, on August 15th left scores dead. America tried to put an end to the escalation of force when President Barack Obama declared on August 20th that use of chemical weapons could trigger an American military intervention, not least to keep them out of the hands of third parties, including Islamist terror groups." Economist

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Looks like the economist can still think and analyze. The decision to engage decisively in cities was fatal. Insurgencies begin in the coutryside. The insurgents should have read their "Mao, Giap, Lawrence and Guevara." Lesson 1 for the insurgents. First control the rural population, then 2- using the "sea" of the people cut the communications between towns, 3- Isolate the government land and air forces in the bases. 4- Then seek battle with larger and larger government forces based on an experience of success. Oh well, better luck next time. pl

"In 1992 the FBI discovered the Weizmann Institute of Science of Rehovot, Israel penetrated secure U.S. computer systems at the Yuma Proving Ground with the help of a U.S. computer science student. The FBI investigation further documented evidence that Weizmann was engaged in clandestine nuclear weapons research supported by its U.S. fundraising arm, the "American Committee for the Weizmann Institute." Yet on May 18, 1993 the Justice Department Office of Intelligence Policy and Review ordered the Assistant FBI director to terminate their Weizmann Institute counterintelligence investigation.
IRmep fought for public release of the Justice Department termination order via a Mandatory Declassification Review. On August 21, 2012 the National Security Division claimed it had declassified the memo, but then refused to publicly release it. Such a tactical move keeps the memo from being publicly reviewed to see what justification (or lack thereof) existed for calling off the Weizmann investigation. If the memo isn't classified, it cannot be reviewed for declassification release by the outside Interagency Security Classifications Appeals Panel (ISCAP). If the entire memo is protected by a number of dubiously applied "privacy" and law enforcement exceptions, the public will never be able to fit the investigation into a larger pattern of suspicious DOJ forbearance into conventional and nuclear arms related smuggling, quashed espionage investigations of AIPAC, clandestine PR campaigns and Israel lobby attempts to subvert the U.S. electoral process. Although Mark Bradley--who issued the Justice Department National Security Division MDR decision--asserts it can be appealed to the Department Review Committee , the final decision will likely be made by the DRC's chairman...Mark Bradley.

24 August 2012

- In Egypt we support consolidation of power by an obviously Muslim Brotherhood run government. To that end, HC and her deputy, Bill Burns, have traveled to Cairo to threaten and cajole the Egyptian military into accepting what the Egyptians know will become an Islamist state with all that promises for women, Christians, homosexuals, etc.

- In Afghanistan we are engaged in a very long, very costly war against an Islamist guerrilla army that has the support of many in that country. It is claimed that the Afghan soldiers and police who are killing our men are merely "disaffected." Yes, but their disaffection is largely the result of their anti-kaffir xenophobia. We are now in the process of abandoning the failed COIN strategy in favor of a CT based strategy that I advocated three years ago, but that was then. This is now. The time has probaby passed.

-In Iraq, we created a government that rejected any real strategic relationship with us and now conspires with Iran to halp Iran evade the sanctions regime. But, we still say we love them.

- In Tunisia, the Islamist element in the new government is seeking to erase French culture in the country. We look fondly upon them.

- In Yemen we directly assist the new Yemeni government in seeking the annhilation of the small Sunni Wahhabi insurgent movement. In so doing we align ourselves with the Sunni majority of the former PDRY against the Fiver Shia population of the North who are thought to be somehow related to Iran. They are not.

- Iran. Well, I won't even try to deal with that here. We await Israel's initiative.

- Saudi Arabia. We await their desires as well.

- Syria. We support a Sunni Wahhabi led, financed and armed insurgency against a government that has traditionally been hostile to Islamist groups.

"Scores of mutilated, bloodied bodies have been found dumped on the streets and on waste ground on the outskirts of Damascus in recent days, apparently the victims of a surge of extrajudicial killings by Syrian security forces seeking to drive rebel fighters out of the capital and its suburbs." Washpost

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The Washington Post led with this article today. That is not surprising. The Post has been a consistent backer of the Sunni Islamist led rebellion against the Assad government. Yes. The Syrian forces are methodically searching areas that they retake and are killing supporters of the rebellion. Why are they not hiding the bodies? They want those they do not kill to see the bodies and they don't mind if the Washington Post wants to talk about it either. This is 'pour encourager les autres." The message is that this is what happens when you take up armes against the government. An additional message is that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are impotent in the face of the defeat of their proteges. This will continue until morale improves.

This war is not like the American Civil War (WBS). When that war ended at Appomattox there were no executions for treason among the defeated. Confederate ofiicers took their "sidearms, baggage and personal horses" home with them. Grant encouraged the Southern troops to take the horses and mules home with them so that "a crop could be put in." The Army of the Potomac presented arms to the Army of Northern Virnia as they lay down their weapons and colors. Their hearts had not been in the war? Look at the casualty figures.

The end in Syria will not be like that. The Confederates knew in their hearts that the Union Army would not massacre their families. Nor would they they be made into the slaves that they no longer had. None of that is or will be true in Syria, Having encouraged the uprising, the US can only watch the inevitable, terrible end of the war. The Syrian Army believes the war WILL end in the massacre and effective enslavement of them and theirs if the rebels win. At the same time, the rebels have now been demonstrated to be people who kill their prisoners like sheep at the Eid. This war will be fought to the death.

Last night on the "Newshour" a Saudi stringer for "Nightline" was interviewed on the subject of the war. He had recently traveled around insurgent held north Syrai, He commented that the Syrian Army was "demorailised and very cowardly" because they advance a few blocks in a town and then halt. This fellow was clearly "boosting" for his side but in fact the SA is advancing from phase line to phase line in order to avoid an uneven front line that would be vulnerable to counter-attacks. pl

"Syrian troops backed by tanks entered the centre of Daraya, a town on the southwest edge of Damascus, on Friday after three days of heavy ground and helicopter bombardment, opposition activists said.
Hundreds of troops and dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles were seen on al-Thawra street in central Daraya, taking control of the sprawling suburb as a core group of Free Syrian Army fighters pulled out, several activists said by phone from the Syrian capital.
Daraya, which has a population of a quarter of a million, is one of a series of mostly poor Sunni Muslim suburbs that surround Damascus and have been at the forefront of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite.
" Reuters

23 August 2012

"State media hailed the recapture by the army of three Christian neighbourhoods in the heart of Aleppo, but clashes between troops and rebel fighters raged in other parts of the city and in the southern belt of Damascus.
Syria's deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad accused neighbouring Turkey of providing the rebels with arms and rear bases, as Turkish and US officials held talks on hastening President Bashar al-Assad's fall.
" Yahoo News

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It seems to have become difficult to "open" the site for SANA, the "Syrian Arab News Agency." Information management and operations?

The Christians who are the majority population in that part of Aleppo are celebrating. As I have said before, the re-capture of Aleppo is a slow and deliberate process.

The Syrian Army has re-captured one of the border towns along the fromtier with Turkey. That is the first in a process of establishing a cordon sanitaire along the border. pl

"...as a candidate courting his party’s conservative base, Romney has issued foreign-policy pronouncements with a harder line. He says his administration would align closely with Israel, view Russia as the United States’ primary geostrategic foe and label China as a currency manipulator. The population of terrorist suspects at the Guantánamo Bay military prison might double, and “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding could return to the counterterrorism toolbox. A Romney administration purportedly would increase defense spending and bolster rather than shrink the size of the U.S. military. There would be no diplomacy with Iran, which would be enjoined to abandon its nuclear-weapons ambitions or else. U.S. military forces would remain in Afghanistan until the Taliban is defeated decisively." Kifield

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While the focus is Mitt Romeny's foreign policy position, this article from the National Interest provides a very good overview of the varied and competing schools of American Foreign policy. Foresman

22 August 2012

"In recent months, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised that the United States would support the Syria opposition with non­lethal assistance, such as communications gear. Separately, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been arming the fighters. Communications equipment is crucial — allowing the resistance to coordinate during government-imposed Internet blackouts, providing warnings to civilians about approaching Syrian troops or sharing the location of makeshift medical facilities. It can also help the opposition wage an information war against the Assad regime, documenting atrocities and broadcasting propaganda. " Washpost

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The editorial page of the Washington Post is a jacobin neocon mouthpiece. The Post, far more than Israel, wants to see revolution for revolution's own sake spread across the Middle Eastern and Islamic worlds. The fantasy that they have indulged themselves in at the Post to reach this "doctrine" is the idea that societies friendly to Israel and the West will result from such revolutions. This belief springs from the notion that humans are so much alike everywhere that surely they must all want to become part of the West and in doing that reject their "worthless" outmoded ways.

The rebels in Syria are losing. We will probably be spared the spectacle of a jihadi government there for a while.pl

21 August 2012

Christopher Matthews claims to be a Roman Catholic, The teaching of the Catholic Church is that a fetus becomes a person at conception and that, therefore, deliberate abortion is homicide. Matthews has repeatedly said on "Hardball" that Paul Ryan's adherence to this teaching is a species of primitive misogyny. The RC faith is not like eating in an old style Chinese restaurant where one can pick something from column A and something else from column B. Matthews knows that. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College, a Jesuit institution . Matthews knows that "cafeteria catholics" are not Catholics at all. They simply do not acknowledge that have left the church. IMO Matthews is creating a "public scandal." This is a term redolent with meaning in Catholic teaching.

I think Matthews lives in northerh Virgina and in the diocese of Arlington. His bishop is named Loverde. IMO, he and the Jesuit president of Holy Cross are complicit in Matthews' rejection of church teaching and the resultant scandal if they do not condemn him.

I know that the bishops are largely self-serving careerists but surely that is not true of the Jesuits?

Spare me the any nonsense about dissident nuns being "the chuch." They know that they are operating on the fringes of the Catholic Church.

FWIW I think that abortion law should be returned to the states as an issue. the federal government possesses no special wsdom or virtue. There is no such thing as "settled law." "Plessy vs, Ferguson" and "Brown..." should have made that clear.

If you are going to comment on this, tell us if you are or were Catholic. I do not want to deal with any more peple who have no idea what they are talking about. Expect a quiz if there is doubt. pl

"Rockets are dangerous, complicated and relatively unreliable. No-one has yet built a launcher that is guaranteed to work every time. A misaligned switch, loose bolt or programming error can lead to disaster or, with a human crew, a potential tragedy. Rockets are also incredibly expensive - even the cheapest launch will set you back some $12 million, meaning the cost of any cargo costs a staggering $16,700 per kilogram. Although the funky new space planes being developed, such as Britain’s Skylon or Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo, will slash the costs of getting into space, they are still based on rocket technology – using sheer brute force to escape the clutches of gravity. But there is a radical alternative. Science fiction fans have long been familiar with space elevators. Popularised by Arthur C Clarke, the concept of an elevator from the Earth to orbit has been around for more than a century. In the space operas of Iain M Banks or Alastair Reynolds, space elevators are pretty much taken for granted – they’re what advanced civilisations use to leave their planets. " BBC

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I have written on this before but it is "back" in the news. I hope this happens. pl

"More than a month into the battle for Aleppo, the rebels who seized control of much of the city sense that its residents do not yet fully support them. Opposition fighters – around 3,000 of them – are almost the only people moving around the eastern half that the Free Syrian Army now controls. The small numbers of non-fighters who remain seem to pay them little heed. Few seem openly welcoming.

"Yes it's true," said Sheikh Tawfik Abu Sleiman, a rebel commander sitting on the ground floor of his fourth new headquarters – the other three were bombed. "Around 70% of Aleppo city is with the regime. It has always been that way. The countryside is with us and the city is with them. We are saying that we will only be here as long as it takes to get the job done, to get rid of the Assads. After that, we will leave and they can build the city that they want."" The Guardian

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Well. Well. CNN has not noticed this but The Guardian has. The truth of this matter is that the rebels are far too exrteme in their religious enthusiasm for the relatively sophisticated and cosmopolitan people of Aleppo.

Why is the battle in Aleppo taking so long? As I wrote here before, the government wishes to avoid destroying this important metropolitan area with its population sympathetic to the government and its economic base.

The simple truth is that Aleppo awaits its liberators and they are not the rebels. The American people are being lied to yet again by the media. But then, they and their AIPAC friends know better. pl

20 August 2012

The nonsense in the media about a congressman taking a nighttime dip in the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias) would be funny if it were not so stupid.

This "incident" took place a year ago after a group dinner attended by a gaggle of members of the US House of Representartives embarked on a propaganda trip run by AIPAC.

Lake Tiberias is one of Israel's major resort areas. Water sports are the "name of the game" for other than Christian pilgrims. Modern hotels are everywhere. The city of Tiberias has long been an R&R center of UN troops on duty in the region. They come there to relax, drink and make use of the army of Russian and Ukrainian prostitutes who inhabit the town.

For the Christian pilgrims the Israeli ministry of Religious Tourism has opened a hiking path called the "Jesus Trail. " So, everyone is "covered. pl

"Iraqi government officials are turning a blind eye to the large financial flows, smuggling and other trade with Iran. In some cases, they say, government officials, including some close to Mr. Maliki, are directly profiting from the activities. “Maliki’s government is right in the middle of this,” said one former senior American intelligence official who now does business in Iraq. In announcing that he was “cutting off” Elaf Islamic Bank, Mr. Obama said it had “facilitated transactions worth millions of dollars on behalf of Iranian banks that are subject to sanctions for their links to Iran’s illicit proliferation activities.” But the treatment the bank has received in Baghdad since it was named by Mr. Obama suggests that the Iraqi government is not only allowing companies and individuals to circumvent the sanctions but also not enforcing penalties for noncompliance " NY Times

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The instances of Iraqi defiance or indifference to American "guidance" are now so numoerous as to make any pretense that Iraq is a firend and ally of the US to be a total farce maintained as a political convenience. pl

"Jabhat al-Nusra’s growing visibility on the streets of Syrian cities highlights one of the reasons the United States and its allies have been reluctant to arm Syrian rebels even as Obama administration officials repeatedly insist that Assad must go. Fears are widespread among Western governments that weapons sent to the rebels could wind up in the hands of extremists and be turned against their benefactors in a region already taut with sectarian and geopolitical rivalries.

In an interview at the mosque that serves as his headquarters in the Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Jabhat al-Nusra commander Abu Ibrahim said he has 300 men under his control. About 50 of his fighters were seen milling around the mosque, many wearing the baggy, calf-length pants and long beards associated with devout Islamists. Others were inside." Washpost

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The rebels have been dominated by Sunni jihadis from the beginning of the civil war. Their influence has now become so evident that not even the Washington Post can ignore it. pl

"Given some of the other moves that Morsi and those around him have made, there is reason to be concerned. Morsi has appointed a new minister of information, Salah Abdul Maqsud; he, too, comes from the Muslim Brotherhood and actively supports the move to replace 50 leading editors and journalists. Charges have been filed against the editor of the independent opposition newspaperal-Dustour for insulting the president. It is probably no accident that the state media’s tone has changed markedly in the past week — and is far more favorable toward Morsi." Dennis Ross

19 August 2012

"The discovery in late 2010 of the huge natural gas bonanza off Israel’s Mediterranean shores triggered other neighboring countries to look more closely at their own waters. The results revealed that the entire eastern Mediterranean is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves. That discovery is having enormous political, geopolitical as well as economic consequences. It well may have potential military consequences too. Preliminary exploration has confirmed similarly impressive reserves of gas and oil in the waters off Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and potentially, Syria." Thethe

18 August 2012

"The band members were arrested in March after performing a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral, pleading with the Virgin Mary to deliver Russia from Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a third term as Russia's president weeks after the protest.

The Orthodox Church issued a statement Friday, calling on Russian authorities to show the women "mercy" within the framework of the law.

The French news agency, AFP, reports that a telephone poll conducted by the Echo of Moscow radio station Saturday indicated 77 percent of listeners felt it was "impossible to agree with the verdict."" VOA

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If Putin is clever he will seize the opportunity to demonstrate that he is no longer a Chekist.. pl

"With an Islamist prime minister, whose cabinet would be freed from SCAF supported ministers, either in the next two weeks, some sources argue, or after parliamentary elections, and with an Islamist head of the military, an Islamist vice president and an Islamist parliament, along with the predominantly Islamist drafting body for the constitution, the Islamist current, and president, is fully in control." Al-Ahram

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(irony alert) There might be a new editorial staff at Al-Ahram soon. They should stop "bitching." The people voted and this is what they wanted, most of them. pl

In the year 1850, John Parker Hale, free soil Democrat from New Hampshire who had been watching the painful aftermath of the failure of the 1848 revolutions, began a speech to express his sympathy for “the millions who are under the heel of power.” Taking the tone of today’s human rights crusaders, he said he viewed the crushing of the revolution in Hungary by Russia and Austria as a moral, not simply a political, question. He urged “…the American Senate, the highest legislative body of the world, the wisest, greatest and most magnanimous people” to “constitute themselves a high court” whose mission should be “to try the nations of the earth for ‘atrocious acts of despotism.’” Hale urged that we Americans as “a high court of indignation. “are to arraign at our high bar the nations of the earth, and they are to pass in trial before us.” America’s targets weren’t to be small fry or second rate powers, but villains like the Czar of the Russia,” the aim to try him “not only for what he did to Hungary,” but “for what he had done long ago in sending those unfortunate exiles to Siberian snows.” Hale then asked, “And after we arraign Russia, what would the next target be? England for the way they had treated the Irish and for the cruelties oppressions they did there?” (or) “go to Algiers to inquire what the French had done there?” Hale wanted to try the czar of Russia, In other words, Hale felt that the U.S. government should become a unilateral agency for the promotion of human rights.

16 August 2012

"...these jihadi groups pulled the rug out from under the feet of everyone, and now number more difficult in the equation Syrian, and it is too late for any decision Western U.S. to change this fact...." Al-qusa al-arabi

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This Arab newspaper, al-quds al-arabi (Arab Jerusalem) believes that jihadis supported by Qatar and Saudi Arabia have completelyoput "played" the Americans and Europens and now are such a major factor in the Syrian civil war that the West will have to include them in all plans as furure participants in Syrian government. pl

"... an Israeli strike on Iran will include a "barrage of tens of ballistic missiles" launched from Israeli territory towards Iran, as well as a barrage of "hundreds of cruise missiles" which will "pound command and control systems, research and development facilities, and the residences of senior personnel in the nuclear and missile development apparatus. "Intelligence gathered over years will be utilized to completely decapitate Iran’s professional and command ranks in these fields," according to the blogger. Silverstein says the attack will open with an unprecedented cyber-attack which will take the internet, telephones, radio and television, communications satellites, and fiber optic cables leading to and from critical installations—including underground missile bases at Khorramabad and Isfahan - out of action. "The electrical grid throughout Iran will be paralyzed and transformer stations will absorb severe damage from carbon fiber munitions which are finer than a human hair, causing electrical short circuits whose repair requires their complete removal. This would be a Sisyphean task in light of cluster munitions which would be dropped, some time-delayed and some remote-activated through the use of a satellite signal," the blogger claims. According to the document, the missiles will strike their targets—some exploding above ground like those striking the nuclear reactor at Arak–which is intended to produce plutonium and tritium—and the nearby heavy water production facility; the nuclear fuel production facilities at Isfahan and facilities for enriching uranium-hexaflouride. Others would explode under-ground, as at the Fordo facility. Following the first wave of attacks, Silverstein says, an Israeli radar satellite will pass over Iran and transfer information directly to war planes making their way covertly toward Iran. " YNET

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This strikes me as an enormous conceit, the fevered imaginings of a military power that has never attempted anything of this magniitude. I judge such an operation to be beyond Israel's capacity. They have no idea where all the Iranian nuclear facilities are located. Do they imagine that the desired degree of damage will be accomplished in one set of attacks? In the spirit of the YNET's comment on General Dempsey's Irish ancestry, I might observe that this level of grandiosity may be endemic in Israeli thinking. pl

"Dempsey was painfully clear. He basically said that Israel should not disregard the opinions of its top security officials, stop the constant chatter on Iran and refrain from any acts that may have an adverse effect on the global economy. The general also meant to tell Israel that it mustn't believe that Netanyahu has any control over the US because he has friends in the Republican Party. Dempsey laid down the facts: Israel is not America, it does not possess the same capabilities, and if Netanyahu and Barak continue wreaking havoc – Israel won’t have America either. It will take a while before we will be able to gauge the depth of the current crisis between Israel and the US (and between Netanyahu and Obama). Washington made a strategic decision to show Israel who is the mentor and who is the protégé. The US hit Israel's most sensitive nerve: The pride in its military power. But it appears that the US had no other choice. After weeks of belligerent headlines, President Obama had enough of Netanyahu's inclination to play with fire. We should start getting used to it." YNET

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I think that the writers description of Dempsey's "Irish descent and character" are equivelnt to other such references that could be made to Jews, Blacks, etc. This is entirely inapropriate.

I suppose the reaction in the Israeli/AIPAC/Republican world will be to intensify their campaign of undermining General Dempsey in the press and among the creatures of the Washington/New York underworld.

Was this a statement of great import as YNET thinks? I certainly hope so. pl

"Another demand is a noticeable reinforcement of American forces in the Persian Gulf and emphasizing, mainly in the press, Washington's capabilities to stop Iran's nuclear program. The US has a substantial amount of forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, but many of them are busy with the war in Afghanistan and the piracy off the Horn of Africa. Moreover, some of the American, French and British forces in the Gulf are exposed to sea missiles, mines and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' small assault boats. The concentration of US naval forces in the Indian Ocean, off Iran's shores – would demonstrate that Washington is determined to prevent the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and is prepared to strike if necessary." ynet news

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Here we have a clear statement of the demands being made on the United States by Israel as "blackmail." pl

"Morsi, according to insiders, is expected to press ahead with efforts to expand the Brotherhood's control. He plans to soon replace many of Egypt's 27 provincial governors with Brotherhood members or sympathizers of the group and purge the judiciary of judges known to be opposed to its policies, according to the insiders familiar with deliberations in Morsi's inner circle. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution. "We are now rid of a state run by the military. What is left for us to do is to rid ourselves from the state of the Brotherhood," wrote columnist Mohammed Amin in the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm daily" ABC News

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Is this a better government for the Egyptian people? Will Mursi consolidate power in Islamist hands and change social and commercial law to suit that end? At present he has both executive and legislative power. Were the attacks at Rafah real or a carefully staged pretext for removal of seculat leaders in the Egyptian military and intelligence service??

The new defense miister wa a student at the US Army War College a few years back. His master's thesis there was a "confection" of anti-American tropes. In this document he wrote o the need for full integration of Islam into every aspect of the Egyptian state. There will be another post on his thesis.

Mursi has gone to Saudi Arabia to speak at the OIC meeting there. To leave Egypt at a time like this is a strange move. i suppose he has gone to the meeting for the purpose of de-legitimizing the Syrian government in favor of the Sunni rebels. pl

14 August 2012

"Netanyahu is set to meet the president — in Washington, rather than as previously thought at the UN General Assembly in New York — between September 28 and October 1. The prime minister, Channel 10 News reported Monday, could not possibly order an Israeli strike on Iran prior to that meeting, where the Iranian threat would presumably be the main subject of discussion. Neither could he order an attack before his tentatively scheduled address to the General Assembly a few days earlier, on September 27 — his last appeal to the international community for firmer action to thwart Iran, according to Channel 10.

The timeframe for an Israeli attack, the report suggested, would thus be sometime between October 2 and the presidential elections on November 6. Immediately after the US elections, Israel could presumably not defy a newly elected president. And fairly soon after that, it might be too late for Israel to stop Iran because of the Iranians’ progress and the limitations of Israel’s military capacity." Times of Israel

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I see that Amnon Shahak, a former chief of staff of the IDF, has declared himself oppposed to an Israeli unilateral attack on Iran this autumn. IMO he wa the best and most capable of all the chiefs of staff of the IDF.

After all the years of waiting for Israel to make up its mind about its intentions in regard to Iran, I am as weary as the rest of you concerning the possibility.

Nevertheless, it looks like this might really be the time if not yet the hour.

Natanyahu and Barak (the odd couple of Israeli politics) seem to believe that they must act before the US presidential election or loose their (and Israel's) freedom of action perhaps forever. They reason, as does this article, that both presidential candidates will be compelled by some magic force lurking in the water supply to be the first to urge or order the US armed forces into action essentially under Israeli operational control. What else can you call it when the Israelis would dictate the time, place and nature of a war in which US forces would participate.

What would be the limits of US participation in such an air and naval war? Are combined plans being written? If they are not, then what would follow an Israeli attack would be a chaos of rushed actions against a substantial target set in a large country. Israel's air and missile assets would soon have "shot their bolt' through combat casualties, mechanical attrition, exhaustion of air crews, etc. The Iranian nuclear complex is not completely known to US intelligence. If it is not known to us, it is certainly not known to the Israelis. They derive much of their knowledge from US intelligence. Israel's ability to generate sorties over Iran would decline rapidly after the first strikes. Where would their emergency recovery airfields be? The Caucasus? This is a fantasy. The Gulf? Another fantasy. Iraq would not allow the US to use its airfields for such a campaign. All this would quickly leave the US in the situation of having to wage alone a protracted air war against Iran. the US economy is still a mess. We are still engaged in Afghanistan and bleeding money there.

If BHO finds himself faced with this menace by Bibi, he would be wise to refuse to accept Bibi's demands and if necessary leave the ensuing war to be fought by a Romney administration. They and their AIPAC/neocon controllers relish the idea. Let them enjoy it. pl

13 August 2012

"Dear friends of the Festival au Désert, as all of you know very well, Mali is facing a very difficult period. While the North of Mali is actually in the hands of the islamist fighters, the South is still engaged in a political turmoil. In these conditions, it is impossible to organize our annual festival in the desert of Timbuktu."

This announcement appears on the website for the Festival au Désert, an international music festival held annually near Timbuktu in Mali since 2001. It succinctly sums up the current situation.

What is happening in that country is a shame. Mali is West African and Saharan in both geography and culture. It had a reputation for embracing, or at least managing, this diversity. However, Mali has never been a "Rousseauian" peaceable kingdom. The Tuaregs of the north have been seeking self determination for a century and have been fighting an insurgency on and off since at least 1962. As Qathafi was nearing his final fate, many of his Tuareg fighters emptied out arms depots and made their way to Mali. These heavily armed, well organized and trained forces joined the former Tuareg insurgents in northern Mali to form a reinvigorated National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). And so began the Tuareg Rebellion of 2012.

At the same time, another group formed and began fighting the Malian government in the north. This group, Ansar Dine, is Salafist in orientation and is aligned with Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM). Ansar Dine seeks to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state in all of Mali.

"At the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Vice President Dick Cheney, an aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Steve Cambone, and the American envoy to Iraq, Paul Bremer all believed that the Allied Coalition was strong enough to succeed at anything it chose to tackle. After the military victory, the initial U.S. political objective was to consolidate support for the U.S. forces and begin to resurrect a normal political environment. This would prove difficult and elusive because, as we’ve seen, Bremer had fired most of the Iraqi educated middle class and Iraqi technocrats as politically unfit: they were Baathists." Sale

"The "Awakening" is taking a turn, very different to the excitement and promise with which it was hailed at the outset. Sired from an initial, broad popular impulse, it is becoming increasingly understood, and feared, as a nascent counter-revolutionary "cultural revolution" - a re-culturation of the region in the direction of a prescriptive canon that is emptying out those early high expectations, and which makes a mockery of the West's continuing characterization of it as somehow a project of reform and democracy. Instead of yielding hope, its subsequent metamorphosis now gives rise to a mood of uncertainty and desperation - particularly among what are increasingly termed "'the minorities" - the non-Sunnis, in other words. This chill of apprehension takes its grip from certain Gulf States' fervor for the restitution of a Sunni regional primacy - even, perhaps, of hegemony - to be attained through fanning rising Sunni militancy [1] and Salafist acculturation." Alastair Crooke

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Yes, indeed. "Mashariya'" would be the word Crooke refers to here. It means "projects" in Arabic. The Saudis have long nurtured dreams of a renewed Sunni triumphalism in Greater Arabia. They played out those projects in dreams with their money and their agents (like Rafik Hariri) for many years with mixed results. Now the opportunity has come with the assistance of naifs in the US who think that Islamism (including that of the MB) is a "cover" for democratic reform. pl

"...it is not cheap, and it requires a long-term commitment of military force and political and economic assistance. The cost can be mitigated in a multilateral intervention such as in Bosnia and Kosovo, rather than a largely unilateral effort along the lines of the U.S. reconstructions of Iraq and Afghanistan. In the case of Syria, that means the United States isn’t the only nation that needs to sign on; Turkish, European and Arab support matter as well. Right now, there is absolutely no appetite in the United States for a Bosnia-style intervention in Syria. That is understandable. Unlike in Libya, the humanitarian disasters unfolding in Syria have not been enough to galvanize the United States to action. In addition, there is nothing intrinsically important there for U.S. vital interests. Syria does not have significant oil reserves, nor is it a major trading partner ..." Pollack

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Ken Pollack wants us to do another "Iraq," this time in Syria. The first Iraq does not seem to have been enough for him. His recipe for Syria is for the US, Turkey and "others" to arm and train the rebels until they destroy the Syrian government and then "create" the armed forces of the new country so that they will revere us and align themselves with us internationally. That does not seem to have worked very well in Iraq, but, no matter, Pollack hopes that it will work this time. The Iraqi government is plainly defiant of American wishes but, who cares about little things like that.

Pollack infamously wrote a book in which he "boosted" for war in Iraq. Then, when the war became a disaster, he pivoted and denounced the whole project. Ken is a "weather vane." He knows that the "neo-Wilsonian" wind in the the BHO administration is blowing in exactly the same direction that the neocon wind blew for Bush. pl

12 August 2012

"Taking advantage of the Sinai crisis to oust his rivals in the military, Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi fired Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi and the Egyptian chief of staff Sami Anan on Sunday, in a move that sent shock waves throughout Egypt and beyond.

A spokesman for the Islamist president announced on Egyptian television that the ejection of top military figures associated with the old regime represent the completion of the Egyptian revolution.

The spokesman added that a constitutional declaration passed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Force (SCAF), which forbade the president from being able to make military appointments, was cancelled." jpost

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As I thought he would soon, Mursi has taken heart from the encouragement of the US government and the American professariat to begin the general purge of the Egyptian officer corps. Erdogan in Turkey has been more gradual in the process but he is headed for the same destination. That end state will be armed forces run by men who are now majors or some such thing and who will be more than happy to grow beards in order to wear a general's insignia.

So far, Mursi has fired the secular head of GID, Field Marshal tantawi, Anan, the chief of staff of the army and has assumed the power to abrogate decisions of the Egyptian constitutional court.

Bravo! BHO Administration! Bravo! You are well on your way to your unspoken goal of the total Islamst dominaation of the Middle East. Stay focused on those elections. Stay focused. pl

"At a news conference here, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that with the situation in Syria growing more dire — as the battle for Aleppo continues to rage — it was time to create a nerve center for information sharing and planning. They said a unified task force with intelligence, military and political leaders from both countries would be formed immediately to track Syria’s present and plan for its future." NY Times

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There are a number of odd things in the BHO Administration's conduct of its unconcealed war against the Syrian government:

- The US and Turkish government are creating a coordination center in which to work with the Syrian rebels for the overthrow of Syria's government. There is no UN resolution or other sanction in international law for this effort to depose a sovereign government that is a member of the United Nations. What is the legal basis for this action within American law? Is it a presidential finding under the National Defense Act? If it is, then we should consider the fact that such a "finding" authorizes a covert action without benefit of congressional agreement. Has the president of the United States now assumed the right and power to issue a personal decree that a foreign government should be overthrown? If that is the case, then any government, anywhere, would be a possible future target for any future US Administration.

- Why is the State Department leading in the conduct of this war? Does this strange situation reflect a dvision of opinion withing the Executive Branch? Do Panetta, the JCS and the CIA agree with what is being done or is HC leading the way because she and her allies among the neo-Wilsonians and neocons are the "pro" faction in such an argument?

- What is BHO's actual position in this matter? Is he so pre-occupied with the election in November that he is no longer really in charge?

- What is the US intelligence community telling the WH about the composition and nature of the Syrian rebel groups? On FNS today McCain told the world that AQ is increasingly present in Syria. He must have gotten that from the IC. What else is the IC saying about the rebels? Personally, i preferred Ed Harris as John McCain. The Democrats should ask Clapper, Petraeus and Flynn the hard questions in open hearings.

- What is the IC (particularly DIA) telling the WH about the actual course of the civil war in Syria? Has the message soaked in that the rebels are on the verge of defeat? If they lose in Aleppo, then their "sanctuaries" along the Turkish border will become vulnerable. Is that why there is now talk of a "no fly zone" over those parts of Syria. Will that be followed by a "no drive" zone? Such zones would require direct combat operations on the part of US and Turkish forces. Which US law would authorize that? pl

11 August 2012

On July 17 the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) agreed to review highly classified documents from the LBJ administration for public release. The top-secret documents purportedly deal with the CIA's initial urgent warnings to President Johnson that Israel was diverting vast quantities of weapons-grade nuclear material from NUMEC, as well as the president and NSC's strategy for dealing with the crisis. While the CIA has denied all previous Freedom of Information Act and Mandatory Declassification Review requests for NUMEC-related documents, the ISCAP has the authority to overrule, as it has done in the majority of release cases. A successful document release could allow Parks and Apollo residents to finally seek hefty court-ordered damages from the true perpetrators (or their estates) who have long been shielded from the consequences of their lucrative crimes at NUMEC--Zalman Shapiro, NUMEC's board members and the Israeli government....

"How Israel Received Weapons-Grade Nuclear Material from a US Company by Michael Kelley http://www.businessinsider.com/the-explosive-story-of-how-israel-received-weapons-grade-nuclear-material-from-a-us-company-in-the-sixties-2012-8 ...On July 19, 1969, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger wrote the following about Israel's nuclear weapons program: "There is circumstantial evidence that some fissionable material available for Israel's weapons development was illegally obtained from the United States by about 1965." About the same time that NUMEC sustained unaccountable losses of HEU-235, the FBI notes, NUMEC was developing and manufacturing food irradiators for Israel. According to Smith there is no single smoking gun that Shapiro diverted HEU-235 to Israel --but many smoking shell-casings. They include: -- In 1965 a NUMEC employee walked near the NUMEC loading dock and encountered people he could not identify loading cans about the size of HEU-235 canisters onto a ship that was headed to Israel. The employee detailed the event in 1980 when interviewed by FBI agents. Based on the number of reported canisters, Smith estimates up to 346 lbs of U-235 could have been shipped to Israel in this single incident. -- In 1968 NUMEC invited and received Israel's elite nuclear weapons development officials and its top spy under the cover of being "thermo electric generator specialists." They included Avraham Hermoni (technical director of Israel's nuclear bomb project), Ephraim Biegun (head of the Israeli technical department of Israel's Secret Service from 1960-70) and Rafael Eitan (long-time Mossad and LAKAM operative who later directed spy Jonathan Pollard's spy program against the U.S.). Smith notes that in 1986 Middle East analyst Anthony Cordesman said there "is no conceivable reason for Eitan to have gone [to NUMEC] but for the nuclear material." --In June 1978 Department of Energy investigators told former Atomic Energy Commissioner (AEC) Glenn T. Seaborg that traces of Portsmouth U-235 -- the government-owned material primarily delivered to NUMEC for processing into fuel -- had been picked up in Israel. Seaborg, who frequently defended Shapiro during his time as AEC chief, later refused to be interviewed by FBI investigators..."